Journal of Facade Design and Engineering (Jan 2019)
The PLUG-N-HARVEST Facade: A Second Skin with Active and Passive Components
Abstract
The construction of office buildings in particular, as well as multi-family dwellings, are largely based on regular planning grids, and the widths of such grids appear to be repetitive across Europe. In the EU project, PLUG-N-HARVEST, a multi-modular façade system for refurbishment, based on these planning grids, is developed. To achieve a comprehensive improvement of the building´s energy efficiency, different solutions for active and passive energy demand reduction, as well as harvesting of heat and power were combined, while also taking into account the existing building structure, climatic region, and usage profile. The PLUG-N-HARVEST façade is designed to enclose the existing façade like a second skin. Thus, the remaining protection provided by the existing outer shell allows continuous usage. The modular approach enables economic efforts by serial production with a high degree of prefabrication and thus shortened assembly time. At the same time, the toolkit design follows the principles of the circular economy. In visual terms, various façade surfaces will be available to allow both an orientation to the existing building and an aesthetic reorientation. In 2019, pilot buildings in Greece, Spain, the United Kingdom, and Germany aim to show the adaptability of the modular toolkit to different façade geometries and to assess its ecological and economic benefits.
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